Podcast micro-class by Brian Johnson explaining how to preserve agency by pre-committing to actions that block temptations. Uses the Homeric metaphor of sirens and Odysseus (and Shane Lopez’s “science of hope”) to introduce “Odysseus contracts” (if-then pre-commitments) and practical tactics like unplugging the internet to make deep work automatic. Concludes with podcast/paid-membership promotion.
Chapters
You're listening to Optimize with Bryan Johnson. More wisdom in less time. Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another micro class. This one's on sirens plus Odysseus contracts. It's inspired by making hope happen. Shane Lopez, world's leading researcher on the science of hope. As you know now, if you've watched these, we have three aspects to the science of hope. Do you remember them? Goals, agency, a sense of belief you can achieve those goals. And then, of course, pathways. I talked about all those. In the first micro class, the last one, we talked about goals and future casting. Now we're going to talk about agency. How do you put agency on autopilot? Well, if you want to consistently take action in pursuit of your goals so you can create that awesome future, you need to be aware of the things that are getting in the way of you taking consistent action. Sirens are getting in the way. In our masterclasses, I've been calling the sirens and what they sing. Kryptonite, the things that take you off track. Oops, I'm now over here. I said my goals were important, but here I am doing these things, the exact opposite of what I need to do to rock it. And here's the fascinating thing. I never knew this. Shane Lopez tells us that Odysseus, Odysseus is on his adventure, right? He's stuck on an island forever, right? Then the goddess who trapped him there, Kirche, pardon my Greek if I pronounced that incorrectly, but Kierke tells Odysseus that, hey, you're gonna face these beautiful sirens. As you can tell, those are beautiful sirens, and they're gonna tempt you as you cruise in your ship, right? They're gonna sing to you. And if you pay attention to them, you will crash against the rock. So Odysseus says, thank you very much. And she continues by saying, goddess Kirky does that. You need to know that this siren, just to make sure you know what that is, this siren tailors her song to each voyager so each of you will hear a different song. She speaks to your weaknesses. She knows where you're weak, and that's how she's going to seduce you. I never knew that about sirens. I think that's absolutely awesome. You have a certain song that this siren sings to you. When your willpower is depleted, when you're feeling weakest, when you're a little stressed and overwhelmed and depleted, what you need to do is identify that song. What's the song? What does that siren sing to you? Maybe this, maybe that, Maybe this come up with a dozen different things that they say to you. That's a fun little trick I just learned from Adam Grant in his new book. We're going to take a little tangent in this micro class, but he says when you're thinking of something negative in your life, it's actually better to try to think of a ton of things. He says you're better off to try to think of a dozen things that are wrong with your life than three, paradoxically. But if you only think of three, you'll easily come up with three. Then you're going to think, well, yeah, my life is kind of a little tough, right? But if you try to come up with 12, right, then you're going to stall somewhere around here. It's going to be actually kind of hard to come up with 12 things that are totally wrong with your life. You're going to realize, you know what, maybe my life isn't that bad. And then conversely, we think that if we want to think about things that are awesome in our life, we should think of a dozen different things. But the research shows you're actually better off to focus on three things that are awesome because you'll rattle off three things that are awesome immediately. If you try to get 12, you're gonna slow down. Then you're gonna think to yourself, paradoxically, wow, my life maybe isn't that awesome. Anyway, that's a very long aside for now. I want you to identify your number one song. You've got your greatest hits album from these sirens. They're singing to you, trying to get you to crash on the rocks. What's your number one thing that you do? What's the little whisper in your head? Right? We all have a spectrum of things that we do from super bad, infinitely bad, to kind of bad, to just baby bad, right? And then, of course, we've got all these positive behaviors. What's your thing? What's the siren do to you and your weakest? Identify that. And then you need to create an Odysseus contract. What was Odysseus contract? Odysseus contract was, I'm going to pre commit myself to not follow the sirens by having my men tie me to my mast. Now, you may not have a mast handy, so you're going to have to come up with a different strategy. If you hear the siren singing that song, then you will do this. That's our if then pre commitments, right? Shane calls those Odysseus contracts. I love that his men put beeswax in their ear, which is A much better strategy. They never heard the sirens. They didn't have to resist them because they never heard them. If your Internet's off, you don't need to worry about going online, right? Unplug it. That's what I do every single minute. I don't want to be online. My Internet is unplugged. I have to go through multiple steps to turn it back on. And I know I'm violating my Odysseus contract and I'm supposed to be doing deep work right now. Turn that Internet off. That's one of my pre commitment strategies. If it's deep work time, then I crush it. Then if I hear this siren saying oh, you just need to go do this one thing right. Then I say hahaha. But I already turned off my Internet. Now's not the time. It's deep work. So think about your sirens. Kryptonites. How is she seducing you? And create your Odysseus contracts. Pre commit One of the most powerful ways to put our agency on autopilot. Willpower, scientists tell us, is to pre commit. Don't wait to make the decision when you're weakest. Make it in advance when you're strong. That's the best way to build your willpower. Play offense, not defense. Hope you enjoyed. Have an awesome day. See ya. Hi, this is Brian. I hope you enjoyed that micro class. If so, I think you'll enjoy everything else we offer at BrianJohnson. Me. Two basic things. One our free newsletter that it's called the Optimizer. Over 50,000 people start their day with it and they tell us it's pretty awesome. And 2 our optimal living membership program. This is where I put all my best stuff. 10 bucks a month for a ton of wisdom. Two primary things in there. Philosopher's notes plus optimal living 101 classes. When you sign up, you'll get instant access to 250 philosopher's notes, which are basically six page PDFs and 20 minute MP3s where I capture my favorite big ideas from great books. The PNTV episodes are kind of a mini version of all that goodness. You'll also get instant access to all my optimal living classes. This is where I take all the ideas we cover in the Philosopher's Notes and boil it down to the most practical stuff you can apply today. Classes include Confidence 101, Getting Stuff Done 101, Relationships 101, Habits 101, etc. You'll also get access to what we call micro classes that I think you'll love. We aim to astonish and we're blessed to have thousands of members telling us we're helping them change their lives and that this is the best 10 bucks they invest in themselves every month. Go to BrianJohnson ME membership to learn more. Thanks for your support and have an awesome day.
